


Silhouette

by Eggling



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Multi, the two/jamie is like. there but kind of in the background. it's witnessed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 08:08:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29898147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eggling/pseuds/Eggling
Summary: “I’m glad,” Ben said at last, and she jerked her head down to look at him. She had almost forgotten that he had been talking. “That we’re not back in our own time.”“I think I know what you mean,” she said softly. “I’m not quite done yet.”Ben and Polly walk through London, talk about home, and see something unexpected.
Relationships: Ben Jackson/Polly Wright, Second Doctor/Jamie McCrimmon
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Silhouette

**Author's Note:**

> on [tumblr](https://the--highlanders.tumblr.com/post/644994426793541632/silhouette).

“Feels good to be back in London, doesn’t it?”

Reaching over to Ben, Polly swung their joined hands between them, tilting her head up to take in the night sky. It was far too cloudy to see any stars, choked out with smoke and light and pollution as the London sky always was – or always had been, anyway. The cobbled lane they were picking their way through was dimly lit by the greasy, yellowed lights of pubs and restaurants, the silhouettes of the rooftops and facades above them pitch black and featureless, but the sky was almost a pale blue, swirled around like a clumsy watercolour.

“It does,” she said at last. “Even if it is a few years after our time.”

Ben snorted. “A few decades, more like.” He nudged her side with his elbow, grinning. “The Doctor was so sure he’d gotten us home, wasn’t he?”

The memory made Polly snicker, pressing her hand over her mouth. “Wasn’t he just,” she said, her voice almost breaking with badly-quietened mirth. “And then he saw that car -”

“And he was so upset,” Ben crowed, then ducked his head, glancing around apologetically. “Wonder where he’s got to, anyway,” he added more quietly.

“Yes.” Polly glanced around them herself, as if expecting the Doctor to jump out at them from one of the lane’s darker crevices. “They’ve been awfully secretive lately, him and Jamie.”

“Mm.” Ben did not seem particularly interested in gossiping with her, his eyes staring straight ahead and slightly glazed over. He opened his mouth, closed it again, then finally spoke. “Still, I’m...” He trailed off again, bowing his head.

“What?” Polly squeezed his hand. “What is it?”

But he did not reply, simply trudging on and kicking his toes against some of the more prominent paving stones as he went. Shrugging, Polly went back to examining the buildings around them. She had to squint up at them to make out their features in the dark, trying to pick out the spots where the moonlight caught on the sharp edges of the plasterwork, or pooled in great panels of shining glass. As a child, she had seen London shattered and pulled apart by bombs – then, as an adult, she had seen it pushed back together again, broken pieces glued into shape with concrete and steel. It was hardly as if she was not used to the city being full of new buildings. There were so many modern wonders that she remembered fondly – or not so fondly. The Post Office Tower jumped into her mind with the thought, and she shuddered, remembering the state the place had been in when she had left it. She had caught a glimpse of the building earlier, and even the sight of it had filled her with dread, an old tinge of the sickening feeling of WOTAN’s hypnosis.

This was different, though. A city made of glass, not concrete. The buildings were taller, the streets busier, and everything from shop fronts to bus stops were crowded with screens. If she had been on another world, it might have felt more familiar. She was used to their strangeness by now. This new London was something else entirely.

“I’m glad,” Ben said at last, and she jerked her head down to look at him. She had almost forgotten that he had been talking. “That we’re not back in our own time.”

 _What do you mean?_ Polly almost exclaimed. They had talked about it often enough. What it would be like to walk through their own London again, visit their familiar haunts and see their old friends. How Polly would have to find a new job, after – well, after everything that had happened in her last one – and how Ben would while away the time waiting for his ship to return – would he come and see her? Of course he would. They would meet for lunch, somewhere, to make up for that meeting they had missed, all that time ago. Or maybe now it would be a date. How would they explain that, to the people they knew? There had always been so much to think about, so much to imagine and miss. She had never considered the possibility that Ben would be glad to find himself somewhere else than home.

And yet, if she gave it a second thought… “I think I know what you mean,” she said softly. “I’m not quite done yet.”

“Me neither. ‘Cause – if he leaves, he’s not coming back, is he?”

“I don’t think he would, no. I mean -” Polly shrugged as nonchalantly as she could, but her grip on Ben’s hand tightened. “Have we ever seen Dodo, since he left her?”

“We haven’t, have we? It’s almost like he -”

“Forgot her.”

“Yeah.”

They walked in silence for a moment, the thought sitting awkwardly between them until Polly squeezed Ben’s hand again. “Jamie wouldn’t forget about us.”

The corner of Ben’s mouth twitched into a wry smile. “He’s not the one who steers the TARDIS.”

Polly could not help but laugh at that. “I suppose that’s true. But I’m not sure the Doctor controls it, either.”

“’Spose not.”

Rounding a corner onto a larger street, they paused, glancing up and down it in unison. The street looked much the same as any other they had passed along today, with the added anonymity of the half-dark. The shops on the lower floors of the buildings that lined the pavement were closed up, their screens shut off, and most of the houses set atop them had their curtains drawn against the thick fog that was descending over them. Only the street lamps lit the scene, their light soft and diffuse through the fog, cascading to the ground in gentle patches beneath the imposing shadows of the taller buildings behind Ben and Polly. But the sky was still illuminated in blue by the city, and Polly did not have to squint too hard to make out the headlights and muted colours of the cars crossing the busier road ahead of them.

As she watched, two figures stumbled out of another lane, just a block or two down from theirs. They were silhouetted against the street lamps, their faces indistinct. But one crashed into the other, who stumbled backwards, both of them visibly quaking with laughter, and there was something about them – the flick of a rumpled coattail, the swish of a kilt, the way they clutched at each other’s arms – that seemed terribly familiar.

“Ben,” Polly whispered. “Look.” She was not entirely sure why she was whispering, and Ben certainly did not share whatever she was feeling, shouting out towards the two shadows.

“Oi!” he cried. “Jamie! Doctor!”

Pulling on his arm, Polly shushed him. She could not put her finger on why, but something told her it would be better to leave the pair of them undisturbed. It felt oddly as if they were intruding on something private, and she was sure the Doctor and Jamie did not know they were there, too lost in their own little world to have heard Ben’s shout. There was something odd about the way they stood, their hands moving more slowly than usual. She was used to their push-pull closeness by now, the way they all but clambered over each other, but this was something different, something private. Quiet, gentle, steady even. Unhurried. She knew, then, why they had been so secretive, and turned her back to them – but she could not resist a glance over her shoulder. Just to know if she was right.

Sure enough, their laughter seemed to have died down, and they had backed into the light falling from one of the lamps. Even from a distance, it caught on each drop of water in the air, enclosing them in a swirling, glittering cocoon of drizzle that could have been otherworldly. They were still holding onto each other, chests pressed together. Jamie’s lips were moving – then the Doctor’s – but whatever they said was lost to the night. Then the Doctor pushed himself up onto his tiptoes, his hands pressing into Jamie’s shoulders to hold himself up, and they were kissing, two silhouettes becoming one.

Polly felt Ben turn away in the same moment as she did, and they exchanged a glance that was first guilty, then bashful. They dissolved into giggles themselves, linking their arms together and trotting away.

“I didn’t think they’d ever get round to it,” Ben said, his voice uneven with badly-suppressed laughter.

“Me neither,” Polly replied, her own words just as unsteady. But she pressed his arm tighter against her side, shaking her head and settling herself into something more businesslike. “Come on, then, let’s find somewhere to stay for the night.”

“Aren’t we going back to the TARDIS?”

“No, we’d need the key -” She hesitated, then allowed herself one last glance over her shoulder. The Doctor and Jamie were still standing there, not quite kissing anymore, but just as wrapped up in each other. “Let’s leave them to it.”


End file.
